Air India resumes Indore to Dubai non-stop flights after 17 months; Check timings

After 17 months of suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Air India flight operations between Indore to Dubai resumed on September 1. Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia virtually flagged off the "non-stop" Indore-Dubai flight on Wednesday. The virtual meet was also attended by the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The international flight took off from Devi Ahilyabai Holkar International Airport.

Timings of the non-stop international flight

The Indore-Dubai flight took off from Indore Airport at 12:35 pm Indian Standard Time (IST) and reached Dubai at 3:05 pm, Air India told PTI. The return flight from Dubai is scheduled to take off every Wednesday at 4:05 pm (UAE time) and reach Indore at 8:55 pm IST. The resumed flight service is expected to boost the long-halted tourism and trade between India and UAE.

In the virtual event organised by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), the guests also flagged off six flights on the Gwalior-Indore route, Gwalior-Delhi route & Air India's Indore-Dubai route. "The Indore-Dubai flight is being resumed after 17 months. I remember that just five days after I became the civil aviation minister," said Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan made the first demand to me that this flight be resumed," he said while addressing the function through video conference. The flight operation was suspended in March 2020.

India-Bangladesh flights to resume from Sept 3

On the other hand, flight operations between India and Bangladesh will restart from September 3 under the "air-bubble" agreement between both countries, ANI reported. As per the notice, seven flights will run per week, for any country carrier, in the air bubble at first. "This Ministry has examined the proposal in consultation with the health authorities of India and would like to propose resumption of operations under the Air Bubble with 7 frequencies per week (for carriers of either country)," the Indian aviation ministry said.

Listing the mandatory guidelines to be followed before boarding international flights, MoCA said in its statement that passengers travelling from Bangladesh to India should be mandatorily subjected to "self-paid confirmatory molecular tests on arrival at the Indian airports concerned (port of entry)." Additionally, only 140 passengers will be allowed to board an inbound flight from Bangladesh. "The capacity may be restricted to a specific percentage of the installed seat capacity of the aircraft (say 90 percent or 95 percent)," MoCA said. People will tourist visas will be temporarily not allowed in the country.

With inputs from PTI and ANI

Image Credit: AP/representative